HALOCK is a Proud Sponsor of the Women in Cybersecurity Conference, WiCyS 2018

The Women in Cybersecurity Conference (WiCyS) will be held in Chicago on March 23-24 and HALOCK is a proud sponsor of this important event. WiCyS is a community in which women in the cybersecurity field can engage, encourage and support one another in order to empower not only themselves, but also the cybersecurity industry at large. WiCyS was established in 2013 with the support from a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The mission of WiCyS is to increase the number of women in the cybersecurity field. While 3 out of 4 tech jobs are held by men, the gender gap is even more significant when it comes to cybersecurity.

According to the 2017 Security Workforce Study that was sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers, women hold only 11% of jobs in the cybersecurity industry globally. In North America, it is not much better at 14%. The conference in Chicago is just one of the ways in which WiCyS goes about inspiring, educating, recruiting and retaining female professionals in the field.

These efforts to recruit women into the cybersecurity industry doesn’t just benefit women. It benefits everyone. According to a study conducted by ESG research in 2016, 46% of organizations say that they have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills, up from 28% the year prior. In fact, in 2015 there were approximately 209,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions in the United States alone. According to the Global Information Security Workforce Study (GISWS), there will be a shortage of 1.8 million cyber workers in the year 2020. There are two sad truths within the cybersecurity industry. It lacks diversity and it lacks qualified people.

One of the women in attendance at this year’s conference will be Viviana Wesley of HALOCK Security Labs. Mrs. Wesley is excited about attending and hopes to take advantage of networking opportunities and learn how the industry can attain a more diverse team. “Women bring unique skills to the table,” says Wesley. “As Information Security Practitioners, women have soft skills that allow their team to better understand what the customer truly needs and bridge the gap between business and technology.”

HALOCK welcomes all attendees and speakers of the conference and hopes that it will help to energize women here in the region who aspire to embark on a cybersecurity career or are already active in the industry itself. By decreasing the inherent gender gap, we can help decrease the threat level to our cyber world.